HeyWire Business Text Messaging Survey Shows 67 Percent of
Professionals are Texting for Business

Business Text Messaging is Driving Business - Over 50% of
Professionals Use Text to Communicate with Clients, Prospects and
Partners

January 29, 2014 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HeyWire
Business, the proven cloud-based business messaging platform
transforming business communication, today announced the results
of a survey of business professionals that highlights trends in the way
they communicate internally with colleagues and externally with clients,
prospects and partners. The results are also available as an infographic
and a research
report.

More than 500 business professionals were surveyed this fall, revealing
that:

Business text messaging is happening – 67 percent are using
text messaging for business-related communications.

Business text messaging has become mainstream in business – 73
percent text with internal co-workers while 51 percent use text to
communicate with external contacts, including customers, prospects and
partners.

There is a growing tension between personal and professional texting–
62 percentof professionals would like to separate business
text messages from personal text messages.

Voicemail is dead – 31 percent of respondents rarely use
voicemail or are using it less than one year ago, with 37 percent
rarely or never check their voicemail anymore.

The research illustrates the rapid adoption of text messaging in the
workplace and highlights how today’s business professionals have moved
beyond the days of voicemail or email and are comfortable with the fast,
direct connection that text messaging offers.

In fact, according to the Mobile
Marketing Association, 97 percent of text messages are read within
the first three minutes of delivery, making it a much more efficient way
to work. In contrast to texting, email is often going unanswered. Almost
three-quarters of respondents said they used text messaging to
communicate with co-workers – and the success of that communication has
led to an increased acceptance of texting and regular use with
customers, partners and prospects.

The research found that 62 percent of business professionals already
wanted to separate their business-related and personal text messages. As
business-related text messaging increases in today’s BYOD-enabled
workplace, one can expect that this number will grow, meaning that both
employees and company IT departments will need to find ways to better
manage this form of communication.

By separating personal and business texting identities, professionals no
longer need to share their personal mobile information with prospects
and clients – and can better manage professional and personal responses.

Text messaging is a fast, secure way to immediately communicate with
your most important business contacts,” said Meredith Flynn-Ripley,
founder and CEO of HeyWire Business. “This research shows the
revolutionary growth of text messaging in the workplace – and the desire
of professionals to have a single business number that separates their
personal and professional communication. Among those currently not
texting for business, the two main barriers cited – seeking a record of
communication and employer willingness to pay for text – are rapidly
falling as businesses realize that technology can address their concerns
on enterprise security and reliability.”

Additional Findings of Note:

Business Usage of Personal Mobile Devices

BYOD – 23 percent of business professionals are using their
personal mobile phone (as opposed to business-issued phones) for
business-related text messaging.

Privacy – Only 29 percent give their personal mobile number to
all internal and external business contacts, while 43 percent provide
their personal mobile number to coworkers.

Employee Concerns impeding Business Text Messaging Adoption

41 percent of business professionals that don’t use messaging for
business today, said they didn’t do so because they preferred a formal
record of communication.

Another 22 percent of those that don’t use text messaging for business
replied that it was because their messaging plan was not paid for by
their company.

Changing Preferences for Business-Related Communications

70 percent of respondents felt that the ability to consolidate all
business communications on one number would be very useful to them in
their business communications.

64 percent said that they’d be likely to use a service that allowed
them to use their business phone number (not mobile number) to send
and receive work-related messages from their computer, tablet or
smartphone.

60 percent of respondents said they’d be likely or highly likely to
message customers in a professional and secure manner; while 68
percent said the same for messaging business associates.

With HeyWire’s Business Messenger, landline office numbers are entered
into the HeyWire Business cloud and immediately text-enabled.
Professionals can then access the easy-to-use Business Messenger app to
send and receive text messages with both colleagues and clients from a
smartphone, PC or tablet. By using their existing landline number,
Business Messenger allows professionals to hand out “one number”
externally to clients – maintaining mobile access while separating their
professional and personal communications. All messages are encrypted and
can be logged and stored based on corporate policy and preferences,
assisting with compliance needs.

For efficiency-oriented companies, HeyWire Business is the messaging
service that provides the most secure and reliable way to productively
connect with customers and co-workers. It does this by sending and
receiving multimedia messages across computers, tablets & smartphones to
anyone within and outside of an organization. Through partnerships with
some of the world’s leading business technology providers, HeyWire
Business is actively being sold into a market of over 20M business
people. For more information, visit www.heywire.com.